Building construction



Paten ted Apr. 10, 1923.

` UNITED sTATEs 'PATENT OFFICE.

LEO KROONEN, CORONA, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR '1'0 CHARLES DONLO, OF OXNARD,

CALIFORNIA.

BUILDING CONSTRUC'I'ION.

Application led July 1,

To all 'whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, LEO KRooNEN, a citizen of the United' States, residing at Corona, in the count of Riverside and State of California, have lnvented a new and useful Building Construction, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is direoted to improveinterlocking at the joints, which is of excepi tional load bearing strength and in which by the provision of broken or non-continuous mortar joints, the wall is rendered moisture-proof.

' Anotherobject'is to provide a wall structure providing horizontal spacing between the unit tile or blocks which are adapted to accommodate reinforcing elements or pipe lines or conduits which may be positioned A w through a wall constructed in accordance during the laying of the several courses of blocks.

Another object is to provide unit tile or blocks adapted to be variously assembled to produce walls 'of difl'erent thickness and formed to compel an ,assembling of the blocks in transversespaced relation providing transversely brokenmortar joints, each space being spanned or bridged over by blocks of the adj acent Courses' of the wall.

Another object is' to provide aiisingle and a double width building block adaptable for the formation of building walls of different thicknesses, each block being of tongue and groove formation adaptable for assembling in spaced interlocking relation, the blocks cooperating with suitable corner and jamb blocks.

Various other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following description of the accompanying drawings which form a part of this disclosure, and which illustrate a preferredform of embodiment of the invention.

'Of the drawings: j

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a build- 1920. vSerial No. 393,384.

ing wall formed of. the blocks herein desoribed. a v

Fig. 2 is a perspective view'of one of the double width blocks. i i

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the double width blocks, in upside-down position.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the single width blocks.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the single width blocks, in upside-down position.

Fig. 6 is a perspective, view similar to Fig. 3, 'showing a block having short tongues.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view similar to Fig. 5 showing a single width block with short tongue.

Fig. 7a is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing a block with both its side Walls of a finished character.

Fig. 8 is a top plan view of one of the corner blocks.

Fig. 9 is a top plan view of onesize of z jamb block.

Fig. 10 is a top plan view of a short jamb block, and

Fig. 11 is an enlarged transverse section with the provisions of the present invention.

Before going into the description of the various details of construction, certain features which are desirable and necessary in walls of the type herein disclosed will be set forth.

To produce a structure which guarantees a safe load-bearing wall is of major importance and this can best be accomplished by providing unit tile or blocks which are laid in courses to bring their Vertical` Webs or wallsiin Vertical alignment. Further it is of major importance that the wall be c'apable of withstanding severe Itransverse `strains without exerting a shearing strain on the mortar joints, and to this end it is desirable to form the wall units with vertically intermeshing horizontal tongues and grooves or other interloking provisions to prevent relative lateral shifting of the units.

'To produce a wall of hollow building blocks or tile in an endeavor to insulate against heat and cold, such blocks which are laid inv horizontal Courses providing horizontal intermediate air spaces are the most each course in the the blocks of each gitudina effective for the 'reason that air in horizontal spaces does not have a tendency to circulate as freely as does air in Vertical spaces, the natural tendency of air being to circulate vertically.

Guarding against the penetration of nioistures is another feature which must be given consideration in the production of the best type of structure and to provide a mortar joint which is efl'ectively moisture proof it is necessary to provide a non-continuous joint, that is, a joint in which the mortar does not extend in a single layer throughout the entire width of the wall, and further it is desirable that each width of ,mortar joint be transversely offset as in joining'the tongues and grooves of adjacent blocks, so that lnoisture working' in through the joint would have to travel upwards at at least one portion of the joiny It isvfurther desirable that the blocks in be transversely spaced with the blocks of the adjacent courses bridging or spanning the spaces, so that as the blocks are laidany desirable form of reinforcing or water or other pipes, wire or conduits may be incorporated in the wall at any dsired height during the building o f the wall.

With reference to the drawings, A designates a single width hollow tile or building block having the opposed parallel side walls `1`-2 of uniform thickness, the to wall 3 and the bottom wall 4,the side walis'extending upwardl beyond the top wall to form a longroove 5 and the bottom wall having a downwardly projecting longitudina-l tongue 6 positioned in Vertical alignment with the groove 5. The tongue 6 has opposed angled side walls converging outwardly and when in position as part of a wall structure said tongue is positio-ned withgrooves of the blocks of the next lower course, providingy an interlocking joint. B designates a double width block, each half of which is of the same form as the single width block' A, with the two halves joined by connecting webs '7, 8.

In constructing a wall with these units, course are' spaced from each other transversely with the blocks of the several courses being relatively staggered vertically. As shown in Figure 11, each of the blocks B spans or bridges over the space between the two adjacent blocks .of the next course forming intermediate lon-,

gitudinal chambers C, with its tongues engaging within the grooves of the blocks of the next lower course. In laying up the blocks, mortar is spread in the grooves of the top course of blocks and the blocks of the next course set in place, the tongues entering the filled' grooves forcing the mortar upwards and along the top surfaces of the side walls and the vtapered sides of the tongues serving to pack the mortar in the corners of the grooves to insure a more perfeet joint. It will be noted that the mortar joints 10 are broken transversely by the chambers C and that for moisture to pass transversely through any joint it would have to force its way upwards' through one of the Vertical portions of each width of the joints.

As the blocks in the several 'courses are laid in bond, as shown in' Figure 1, each block B interlocks With eight adj acent blocks and each block A interlocks with four adjacent blocks..

This structure provides a wall formed of hollow building blocks laid in horizontal courses in transversely spaced relation with the blocks of each course spanning the spaces in the adjacent courses and pro-vided with interlocking tongues and grooves j oined with' mortar to provide non-continuous mortar joints, the Vertical walls of the blocks being vertically aligned and the blocks in the several courses beingI vertically and transversely positioned in staggered relation.

In constructing a building wall using the tile units or blocks above described, corner blocks D of the form shown in Figs. 1 and 8 are utilized in .joining two converging walls, the corner blocks having flush top and bottom surfaces and Vertical air cells. The corner blocks are laid in relatively alternate position in the several courses to maintainla uniformi bond, that is, the corner `block in one course is laid in longitudinal alignment with-the one wall and the corner block of the next adjacent courses are laid in longitudinal alignment with the adjacent wall. The Vertical air cells in the several superposed corner blocks are relatively aligned, affording accommodations for Vertical pipes, conduits or reinforcing. With special reference to Figure 1 it will b'e noted that the upper surface of the corner blocks are flush with the upper surfaces of the side wall extensions of the blocks forming the walls, and that they do not have any horizontal grooves. Therefore, in laying. the next course of blocks,jthose which overlap the corner' block,,in this illustration the blocks which will vertically align with theblock 12, will have to. have a portion of their downwardly projecting tongues 6 cut laway permitting the remaining portions of said tongues engaging into the grooves of the blocks in the lower course and the flat portions of the lower walls of said blocks engaging on 'the flat upper surface of fore, within the scope of this inventionto provide blocks E & F which are of the same size and form as the blocks A and B but which are formed with only shortened tongues, as illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7.

It is further contemplated to utilize window or door j amb blocks G which are similar in construction to the corner blocks D exthe corner block. It 1s, there-' `plaster or stucco retaining dovetailed grooves or other` forms of roughened sur'faces, or as shown in Figs. 2' to 7 `only one of such surfaces may be so formed, the opposedsurfaces being of a finished Character to provide any exterior wall finish desirable, or both surfaces may be of a finished character.

I claim: i

1. A wall structure combining a plurality of horizontally disposed interlocking lhollow building blocks each having horizontal top and bottom walls 'and Vertical connecting side walls 'extending above the top wall to form a mortar groove, the bottom wall of each block being formed with a longitudinal tongue vertically aligned with said groove and having converging side walls and positioned .and embedded in mortar in the mortar groove of the adjacent block.

2. A wall structure combining a plurality of interlocking hollow building blocks laid in horizontal courses, each block having horizontal top and bottom walls and. connecting Vertical walls extended above the top wall to providev relatively spaced mortar grooves and an intermediate groove, the

bottom wall 'having relatively spaced tongues projecting into the mortar grooves of -the adj acent blocks of the next lower course and embedded 'in mortar therein-to form transverse mortar joints, each separated' from the adjacent mortar joint by said intermediate groove.

3. A wall structure combining a plurality of single width hollow building blocks having' longitudinal grooves in their upper surfaces, and a plurality of double width hollow building blocks having a plurality of grooves in their upper surfaces, the blocks having longitudinal tongues projecting from their lower'surfaces and relatively aligned i with their respective 'opposed grooves, thev blocks being laid in horizontal courses and in relatively staggered relation vertically .with the tongues of each double width block projecting into the cooperating grooves of two transversely adjacent blocks of the next lower course and embedded in mortar therein to form non-continuous transverse mortar joints, and with each single block laid with itstongue in the outer groove of the outer block of the next lower course to` produce a wall of uniformthickness, the blocks being transversely spaced apart with each double width block bridging over the space between two tran-sversely adj acentblocks of the next lower course.

4. A wall structure combining interlocking hollow building blocks laid in horizontal courses, each course having a single width block and a double width block in the same horizontal plane and transversely positioned in spaced relation with the .double width block of one course bridging over the space between the blocks of the adjacent course, the abutting surfaces of the blocks being provided with co-engaging tongues and mor.

tar grooves Vconnected by transversely separated mortar joints.

5. A wall structure combininfr a plurality of hollow building blocks laid in horizontal courses, the blocks of the succeeding courses vbeing positioned in relatively staggered relation transversely and vertically, and'the blocks in each course being in the same horizonta'l plane and relatively spaced and positioned to span the space between' the adjacent blocks in 'the next course, mortar 'grooves and an'intermediate groove formerl in the upper surfaces of the blocks and' tongues projecting from the lower surfaces of the blocks and positioned within the co- Operating mortar 'grooves of the blocks of the next lower course and embedded in mortar therein to form transverse mortar joints,

each separated from the adjacent mortar joint by said intermediate groove.

Signed at Los Angeles, California, this 'i 18th day of June, 1920.

LEO KROO'NEN.

Witnesses: CLARENGE B. Fos'rnr'.

L. BELLE Wmvns. 

